Patches On Patches: Lantana Must Wait For Bridge Overhaul

LANTANA -- Residents have waited since Gerald Ford was president and mood rings were the rage, and they might wait a decade more.

The ``bubble gum-patched`` Lantana bridge is not scheduled to be rebuilt in the near future, a county official said, despite a state promise to replace the now-36-year-old bridge by 1975.

Former Mayor Chuck Potter doesn`t take the news kindly.

``Replacement is long overdue,`` Potter, standing before the Town Council, said of the Ocean Avenue drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. ``It does have a very bad surface. There`s patches on patches.``

Potholes are filled, he said, with pine tar like ``bubble gum.``

Mayor Bob McDonald agreed.

The bridge and other county roads in Lantana are ``patched together with, at best, bubble gum,`` McDonald said.

But replacement isn`t coming, said Palm Beach County Bridge Superintendent Chuck Laicona. Don Knapp, director of engineering services, said he, knows of no plans to replace the 815-foot concrete-and-steel bridge, although town officials mailed the county a wish list-like request to repave it next year.

``It`s just a request,`` Knapp said, emphasing that the bridge opened in 1950 might not be repaved.

Motorists driving over Lantana bridge might feel a few bumps as they travel over the smattering of filled potholes and scuff marks. Most pockmarks can be spotted while approaching the bridge, Potter said. Some are filled with asphalt and others are patched with a more pliable tar.

Nick Albu, drawbridge tender for the past three years, said the bridge is fine. ``I`ve never had any problems with it whatsoever,`` Albu said.

Most bridges should last 50 years, added Franklin Tse, project manager for the state Department of Transportation in Fort Lauderdale.

State officials told the town in the early 1970s that workers would replace the bridge in 1975, Potter said.

As time grew nearer, state officials moved the date to 1981. Then they switched ownership to the county, Potter said.

Now the county has no plans to replace it.

To Laicona, the bridge is in fairly fine shape, he said. ``The movable bridge is not going to be rebuilt.``